Observation Corps Grenadiers Painted!

The new Minden Russian Observation Corps Grenadiers.

My first battalion of Russian Observation Corps grenadiers is completed and I am really impressed with how they turned out. Kudos to Steve Barber for sculpting some gorgeous models in his first go at sculpting in the Minden style. I'm going to let Steve work on the Russian horse grenadiers next, in both regulation uniform and Summer waistcoats.

Click on the link to the Fife and Drum web store if you are interested in purchasing Russians for your own armies.

Fife & Drum web store

The first picture above shows only three stands with 24 total figures. This was done in order to fit enough figures into the photo shot while still being able to see the close up details. The second photo below, depicts my now-standard 32-figure battalion. A battalion gun with two crewmen will be added  to visually balance the appearance of the line.

Here is the 4-stand version of the grenadiers that I will regularly use in my games. T
he  battalion gun still needs to be added to the grouop.

The Observation Corps grenadier flags are from the Kronoskaf site, as detailed in my previous blog post. They were embellished with some hand painting of the details by me.

Kronoskaf SYW Russians

Flag Making Tutorial

In one of my earlier blog posts, I mentioned that after years and years of trying to figure out how to represent battalion guns and to use them in a game, I came up with a workable system.

The battalion gun will operate as a regular cannon that uses the artillery tables in my Der Alte Fritz rules. This will only apply to "long range" firing. Once the battalion moves within musket range, the cannon ceases to use the artillery tables and instead, simply adds one more D10 die to the musket firing. My rules give each battalion 1 x D10 for every four figures that are firing. So for example, if the grenadier battalion had 24 figures left from its original 32-figure strength, then it would get 6 x D10 for musketry. However, it would also gain an extra D10 for having the battalion gun. Once the battalion loses a whole stand of 8 figures, then the battalion cannon will be removed from the table for the remainder of the game.

I like that the battalion gun adds a sense of symetry to my 4 stands of 8 figures. This arrangement makes it difficult to place the colours in the center of the battalion, but adding the extra stand for the battalion gun moves the colours to the center of the battalion. Fritz likes symetry!

The next unit in my painting queue is a battalion of the Observation Corps musketeers. 

I am back to painting Russians for these two units so that people can see what a battalion of the figures look like once they are painted. After the musketeers are painted, then it is back to painting Prussians for my Pomeranian Army.